The United States political systems should have more than two major political parties.

Pros

Cons

With more third parties, people would not have to choose between the lesser of two evils all the time.

In representative government, more parties leads to politicians feeling more confident to run on what they truly believe in, rather than "flip-flopping" on policy.

The two party system has diluted both parties because the race for majority control has caused the democrats to absorb the liberals and the republicans the conservatives. Whereas these individuals who align farther right and left running in their own parties exclusively would require more cooperation within congress to resolve issues.

The more political parties the more views can be expressed at the highest level

While more than two parties exist, parties other than the leading two are largely nullified by a voting system that heavily pushes momentum towards two options. Alternate candidates are unlikely to win elections. People feel their vote is instead best used supporting the major party their views are closer to, even if they disagree with that candidate on most issues. We should change the way votes are counted to make the other parties more viable.

There are already multiple parties, the problem is that first past the post system. The question is less *should* but *how*.

A multiple party system creates opportunity to form a government made of many parties and many different views, where parties have to prioritize matters

A multi-party system would allow for a more representative form of government. Citizens of the United States have interests beyond what can be represented by a general left/right dichotomy.

The two-party system disincentivizes political compromise between elected officials.

Having more political parties may produce a higher voter turnout.

A multi-party system would reduce corruption, thereby producing a more democratic process.

A two party system (almost by definition) increases the division among people by populating the polar opposites in the ideological spectrum.

With a 2 party system, whenever there is a change in power, the immediate focus is most often on undoing the previous years of change in policy, keeping progress to a minimum.

Other countries have a more varied political system and there is less volatility.

Coalition governments are not really a stable state under a first past the post voting system. Not feasible without changes to a different voting system, such as proportional representation or instant runoff elections.

People are often closer to one party than the other. In competitive national and state elections between Democrats and Republicans, you wouldn't want to split votes with the party more like you and hand the election over to the other party.

in order for america to become more than a 2 party system would mean having to change too many of america's electoral institutions ie first past the post and the electoral college

The main purpose of political parties is to enfranchise citizens with common beliefs. The amount of accepted variance from each party's generalized viewpoints is enough to compensate for individual issues which voters feel differently on in comparison to the party. Thus, the two existing parties fulfill their role as required.

Many of the problems that are brought up in relation to the two party system, are in fact fighting against polarization. Polarization and partisanship are the political forces which drive the parties to extremes and cause individual issues to either be ignored or debated with less intelligence, not the very existence of two parties itself. Thus, it is absolutely unnecessary to increase the number of political parties.

Even though there are only two parties, there are a lot of candidates with very different programs and opinions to choose from, and more parties wouldn't necessarily mean more choice.

Even under multi-party systems, in practice there are always two main players.

This is the way it has always been, it would be too hard to change it now.

New parties without an established reputation could result in people elected on false pretences.

There are in fact, several political parties existing in the United States. However, the most popular parties are the two main ones, Democratic and Republican parties because they simply appeal to the broadest populations.

Third-party votes detract from the major party political candidates.

Both major political parties have all the money and a third party would have trouble raising enough money to be competitive.